The pigs living in the woods. .JPG)
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Over 75 bins of winter squash and potatoes are already stored in our washing and packing barn. They are stacked 6 high to the ceiling.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Week 15 Notes for Members
FARM UPDATE: We spent a lot of time last week preparing some of the fields for next season. We had about 8 acres planted in Sudex, a sorghum-sudan grass that grows to about 8 feet tall. We grew this cover crop to increase our organic matter and improve the health of the soil. Jean-Paul mowed it down and then our neighbor chopped into fine pieces with his silage chopper. Once it was chopped Jean-Paul worked it under with a disc. John spent much of the week spreading compost and working it in. Soon we will plant fall cover crops of oats and peas or rye and hairy vetch to cover the soil for the winter.
WORK DAY:
Please plan to join us for a workday on Saturday, September 27. We will start at 10:00 am and harvest sweet potatoes. There will be a potluck lunch at 12:30 pm and then work again until people are tired. We will meet at the office at the south farm which is located south of the Martin Van Buren Historical Site. Bring water and sunscreen also.
WORK DAY:
Please plan to join us for a workday on Saturday, September 27. We will start at 10:00 am and harvest sweet potatoes. There will be a potluck lunch at 12:30 pm and then work again until people are tired. We will meet at the office at the south farm which is located south of the Martin Van Buren Historical Site. Bring water and sunscreen also.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Week 14 Notes for Members
GOOD LUCK!
We wish Wouter van Nuil good luck as his time on the farm comes to an end. Wouter has spent the last 5 ½ months working on the farm as part of his agricultural training. He attends a 4-year school for Biodynamic Agriculture in Holland. He will start his 2nd year of school in a couple of weeks. We will miss having him as part of the farm crew. His hard work and knowledge have been great assets to the farm this season. We are sure we will see great things from him in the future.
SEPTEMBER WORKDAY
Please plan to join us for a workday on Saturday, September 27. We will start at 10:00 am and harvest sweet potatoes. There will be a potluck lunch at 12:30 pm and then work again until people are tired.
Garden-Fresh Gratin
1 small eggplant (about 1 pound)
2 sweet peppers (red or green) 2 tomatoes
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons
chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter
Trim eggplant; cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices. Core and seed peppers; cut into rings. Slice tomatoes thinly. Set vegetables aside. In bowl, toss together onion, garlic and thyme. Arrange half of the eggplant, overlapping slightly, in lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish. Sprinkle with half each of the salt and pepper. Top with peppers and half each of the onion mixture, tomatoes, and cheese. Repeat layers once. Sprinkle with bread crumbs; dot with butter. Bake in 400ºF oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden and vegetables are softened. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. from www.aubergines.org
We wish Wouter van Nuil good luck as his time on the farm comes to an end. Wouter has spent the last 5 ½ months working on the farm as part of his agricultural training. He attends a 4-year school for Biodynamic Agriculture in Holland. He will start his 2nd year of school in a couple of weeks. We will miss having him as part of the farm crew. His hard work and knowledge have been great assets to the farm this season. We are sure we will see great things from him in the future.
SEPTEMBER WORKDAY
Please plan to join us for a workday on Saturday, September 27. We will start at 10:00 am and harvest sweet potatoes. There will be a potluck lunch at 12:30 pm and then work again until people are tired.
Garden-Fresh Gratin
1 small eggplant (about 1 pound)
2 sweet peppers (red or green) 2 tomatoes
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons
chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter
Trim eggplant; cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices. Core and seed peppers; cut into rings. Slice tomatoes thinly. Set vegetables aside. In bowl, toss together onion, garlic and thyme. Arrange half of the eggplant, overlapping slightly, in lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish. Sprinkle with half each of the salt and pepper. Top with peppers and half each of the onion mixture, tomatoes, and cheese. Repeat layers once. Sprinkle with bread crumbs; dot with butter. Bake in 400ºF oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden and vegetables are softened. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. from www.aubergines.org
Week 14 Newsletter
The potato digger is fixed again and Johnny, Wouter, Mike, Jody and I picked up about 6,000 pounds on Saturday, while Cara and Luke tended the farmers market stand. The yield looks adequate (we are expecting about 30,000 pounds in total yield this year), with the early varieties greatly reducing our average yield. While the Adirondack Red potato has a pretty interior, its susceptibility to scab makes it a poor choice for our farm. The later potatoes like Keuka Gold and NY 129 (a new variety that has not been given a real name) have good resistance against scab and potato leafhopper. We also like Eva and NY 79 for a white potato. Next year we will be introducing another red potato named NorDonna which will replace Adirondack Red and we will try to get our hands on a supply of All Blue seed potatoes.
The winter squash harvest is completed (partly due to the great efforts of our member volunteers) and is stored in the barn. We set a record yield of 50,000 pounds. The onions, on the other hand, suffered from a bad infestation of thrips. The little bugs ate the leaves and reduced the yield dramatically. After giving out onions for a consecutive seven weeks, we only have about 3,000 pounds left. We gave out most of our onions because we do not have a good place to store them this year. In the past we have stored them with apples at a nearby orchard. Our neighbors don’t expect to turn their coolers on at all this year, as most apples will go directly from the field to the apple sauce factory.
The sweet corn has been very good this year. Some sections outyielded our conventional neighbors – who average about 300 bags per acre; now we are faced with a potentially heavy pressure from CEW (Corn Ear Worm). The CEW moth flies in with fall storms from the South. They do not overwinter in New York, although the line below which they can overwinter keeps moving north. Please inspect the tips of the ears in your share this week for a worm and remove it; fortunately they do not affect the rest of the ear like the ECB – European Corn Borer – (which is currently absent in our traps). We always scout for insects and we have seen a greatly reduced number of insects this fall. We wonder if the excessively wet conditions created poor conditions for reproduction. The birds and the raccoons have also been less active than any other year.
All our subtropical vegetables were delayed from the cooler than normal spring and summer conditions. All farmers in the Northeast experienced a much later than usual harvest of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Some later plantings are loaded with fruit that refuse to ripen. By the time the tomatoes turn color, many plants succumb to disease pressure from Alternaria to Septoria and bacterial Canker. On a good note: We have an abundant crop of eggplant and this is the first year we did not lose it to Verticillium wilt. Verticillium is one of the many diseases we inherited from the previous farmer and it survives in the soil. This new variety of eggplant has some resistance to the disease, and between our cultural practices of using compost and biodynamic preparations, we nurse the plants through the initial infestation. This year the plants simply outgrew the early signs of infestation. Also, the low levels of ECB allow us to harvest plenty of peppers. The moth lays its eggs on the top of the pepper and the larvae create a little hole that allows water to run into the pepper, which causes the pepper to rot from the inside out. The sweet potatoes look healthy but they could use another two months of dry and hot weather; as there will be little chance of that, we will be expecting a much lower yield than usual.
The fall crop of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower looks promising although they were all planted later than usual. The wet weather delayed the planting time and this will affect harvest date and possibly total yield. The Brussels sprouts are affected by Alternaria leafspot and it is too early to tell if it will affect the quality of the sprouts. Don’t have high expectations for this crop, but we aim to have at least one or two stalks ready by Thanksgiving.
The parsnips, beets, and carrots look great; this took a valiant effort on the part of the crew, as they spend many hours weeding on their hands and knees. The weed pressure was very high this season – the wet soil conditions allowed every weed seed to germinate. We lost many plantings of greens and salad because we simply could not keep them free from weeds. As the ground dries up, we have a much greater control of the weeds and you can expect a regular supply of greens and salad to be part of your share again. The pigs have been very healthy this season, taking advantage of the space we have given them. The boys live segregated from the girls in different woods. None of the boys have been castrated this year. We are told that castration is a largely unnecessary procedure. We will find out if this procedure actually affects the flavor of the meat. We also separated the male and female sheep as those boys were not castrated either. The turkeys have been a success – though we were expecting large losses while they were young, we only lost a few birds. The only problem was that they could fly over our five-foot-tall fence, so we had to clip the feathers on one of their wings (this doesn’t hurt them, it is just like getting a haircut). The three steers are very happy and love the fertile pastures we provide them with.
Making hay was a challenge, but we only lost about 40 bales out of the 750 round bales we pressed this year. The remainder is of very high quality. We sold about 450 round bales at a reasonable return. One round bale weighs about 600 pounds, so we baled about 250 tons of hay and straw. We pressed about 60 rye straw bales, which were all used for mulch between the rows of eggplant, tomatoes, summer squash, peppers, and cucumbers. Some of our hay bales are also used for mulching between the crops. It is important that we only take the very early cutting of hay to prevent the mulch from containing any weed seed. Due to the use of hay over straw mulch – which depletes the soil of nitrogen – we find that the yield of our garlic was higher this year. This is greatly due to the increased fertility of the soil, as the hay acts both as mulch, soil conditioner, and fertilizer.
Many fields are, as usual, covered with a green manure crop. This year we are experimenting with Sudex, a plant closely related to Sorghum, as a means to combat the many soil-borne diseases on this farm. Some of the Sudex is more than six feet tall and will be worked under in the next few weeks. According to the Soil Health Team at Cornell, Sorghum may harbor greenbug (Schizaphis graminum), which in turn attracts lady beetles, lacewings, and other beneficial predatory insects. The green matter of the Sudex can also create a compound that kills off pathogens and harmful nematodes in the soil. At the least, we will be incorporating a massive amount of organic matter. After I succeed in mowing it down we will need the help of our neighbor’s chopper to hack the Sudex in little pieces so that we can work it into the soil. If we don’t chop it into tiny pieces, the eight-foot-tall stalks will quickly clog up our chisel plow that we use to plow the soil.As we review this year’s crops, our mind is starting to focus on next year’s as we are preparing the fields for next year’s production. Our next few weeks will be spent spreading compost, spraying the horn manure preparation, spreading lime, and seeding the fall cover crops on the many fields where the harvest has been completed.
~ Jean-Paul
The winter squash harvest is completed (partly due to the great efforts of our member volunteers) and is stored in the barn. We set a record yield of 50,000 pounds. The onions, on the other hand, suffered from a bad infestation of thrips. The little bugs ate the leaves and reduced the yield dramatically. After giving out onions for a consecutive seven weeks, we only have about 3,000 pounds left. We gave out most of our onions because we do not have a good place to store them this year. In the past we have stored them with apples at a nearby orchard. Our neighbors don’t expect to turn their coolers on at all this year, as most apples will go directly from the field to the apple sauce factory.
The sweet corn has been very good this year. Some sections outyielded our conventional neighbors – who average about 300 bags per acre; now we are faced with a potentially heavy pressure from CEW (Corn Ear Worm). The CEW moth flies in with fall storms from the South. They do not overwinter in New York, although the line below which they can overwinter keeps moving north. Please inspect the tips of the ears in your share this week for a worm and remove it; fortunately they do not affect the rest of the ear like the ECB – European Corn Borer – (which is currently absent in our traps). We always scout for insects and we have seen a greatly reduced number of insects this fall. We wonder if the excessively wet conditions created poor conditions for reproduction. The birds and the raccoons have also been less active than any other year.
All our subtropical vegetables were delayed from the cooler than normal spring and summer conditions. All farmers in the Northeast experienced a much later than usual harvest of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Some later plantings are loaded with fruit that refuse to ripen. By the time the tomatoes turn color, many plants succumb to disease pressure from Alternaria to Septoria and bacterial Canker. On a good note: We have an abundant crop of eggplant and this is the first year we did not lose it to Verticillium wilt. Verticillium is one of the many diseases we inherited from the previous farmer and it survives in the soil. This new variety of eggplant has some resistance to the disease, and between our cultural practices of using compost and biodynamic preparations, we nurse the plants through the initial infestation. This year the plants simply outgrew the early signs of infestation. Also, the low levels of ECB allow us to harvest plenty of peppers. The moth lays its eggs on the top of the pepper and the larvae create a little hole that allows water to run into the pepper, which causes the pepper to rot from the inside out. The sweet potatoes look healthy but they could use another two months of dry and hot weather; as there will be little chance of that, we will be expecting a much lower yield than usual.
The fall crop of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower looks promising although they were all planted later than usual. The wet weather delayed the planting time and this will affect harvest date and possibly total yield. The Brussels sprouts are affected by Alternaria leafspot and it is too early to tell if it will affect the quality of the sprouts. Don’t have high expectations for this crop, but we aim to have at least one or two stalks ready by Thanksgiving.
The parsnips, beets, and carrots look great; this took a valiant effort on the part of the crew, as they spend many hours weeding on their hands and knees. The weed pressure was very high this season – the wet soil conditions allowed every weed seed to germinate. We lost many plantings of greens and salad because we simply could not keep them free from weeds. As the ground dries up, we have a much greater control of the weeds and you can expect a regular supply of greens and salad to be part of your share again. The pigs have been very healthy this season, taking advantage of the space we have given them. The boys live segregated from the girls in different woods. None of the boys have been castrated this year. We are told that castration is a largely unnecessary procedure. We will find out if this procedure actually affects the flavor of the meat. We also separated the male and female sheep as those boys were not castrated either. The turkeys have been a success – though we were expecting large losses while they were young, we only lost a few birds. The only problem was that they could fly over our five-foot-tall fence, so we had to clip the feathers on one of their wings (this doesn’t hurt them, it is just like getting a haircut). The three steers are very happy and love the fertile pastures we provide them with.
Making hay was a challenge, but we only lost about 40 bales out of the 750 round bales we pressed this year. The remainder is of very high quality. We sold about 450 round bales at a reasonable return. One round bale weighs about 600 pounds, so we baled about 250 tons of hay and straw. We pressed about 60 rye straw bales, which were all used for mulch between the rows of eggplant, tomatoes, summer squash, peppers, and cucumbers. Some of our hay bales are also used for mulching between the crops. It is important that we only take the very early cutting of hay to prevent the mulch from containing any weed seed. Due to the use of hay over straw mulch – which depletes the soil of nitrogen – we find that the yield of our garlic was higher this year. This is greatly due to the increased fertility of the soil, as the hay acts both as mulch, soil conditioner, and fertilizer.
Many fields are, as usual, covered with a green manure crop. This year we are experimenting with Sudex, a plant closely related to Sorghum, as a means to combat the many soil-borne diseases on this farm. Some of the Sudex is more than six feet tall and will be worked under in the next few weeks. According to the Soil Health Team at Cornell, Sorghum may harbor greenbug (Schizaphis graminum), which in turn attracts lady beetles, lacewings, and other beneficial predatory insects. The green matter of the Sudex can also create a compound that kills off pathogens and harmful nematodes in the soil. At the least, we will be incorporating a massive amount of organic matter. After I succeed in mowing it down we will need the help of our neighbor’s chopper to hack the Sudex in little pieces so that we can work it into the soil. If we don’t chop it into tiny pieces, the eight-foot-tall stalks will quickly clog up our chisel plow that we use to plow the soil.As we review this year’s crops, our mind is starting to focus on next year’s as we are preparing the fields for next year’s production. Our next few weeks will be spent spreading compost, spraying the horn manure preparation, spreading lime, and seeding the fall cover crops on the many fields where the harvest has been completed.
~ Jean-Paul
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Susan's Seven Second Tomato Glut Solution
One 16-ounce carton sour cream or yogurt (or a combination)
Several vine-ripened tomatoes,
Your favorite basil pesto
Spoon the sour cream into a blender. Toss in as many halved or quartered tomatoes as you like, cutting away any questionable looking spots if you are dealing with overripe or imperfect bounty. The more tomatoes, the thinner the dressing--meaty, plum tomatoes will give you a thicker end result than regular "salad" or "slicing" tomatoes. Add a few large spoonfuls of pesto. Whirl it all up in the blender, then turn it off and take a little taste. Add more tomatoes and/or pesto if desired. Sprinkle in some salt if needed. Whirl once more and enjoy however you like. Use as a dressing on your salad, a dip for sliced raw vegetables, on pita bread, or chips.
from Farmgirl Fare at fttp://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com
Mediterranean Orzo Salad
16 ounces orzo or other small pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups Kalamata olives, chopped
1 pint Juliet Tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 chopped red tomato
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup lighlty packed fresh parsley leaves and/or fresh basil
freshly ground black pepper
salt
1. Bring about 3 quarts of water to boil in the large pot. Add salt and the orzo and cook until al dente. Drain well in the mesh strainer, then pour hot orzo into the mixing bowl.
2. While the orzo cooks, stir together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in the small bowl. Pour the mixture over the hot orzo and toss. Allow it to sit for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the olives, tomatoes, onion, and parsley/basil, and stir well. Season with fresh ground pepper and a pinch of salt. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature.
From Andrea’s Recipes at http://www.andreasrecipes.com/
One 16-ounce carton sour cream or yogurt (or a combination)
Several vine-ripened tomatoes,
Your favorite basil pesto
Spoon the sour cream into a blender. Toss in as many halved or quartered tomatoes as you like, cutting away any questionable looking spots if you are dealing with overripe or imperfect bounty. The more tomatoes, the thinner the dressing--meaty, plum tomatoes will give you a thicker end result than regular "salad" or "slicing" tomatoes. Add a few large spoonfuls of pesto. Whirl it all up in the blender, then turn it off and take a little taste. Add more tomatoes and/or pesto if desired. Sprinkle in some salt if needed. Whirl once more and enjoy however you like. Use as a dressing on your salad, a dip for sliced raw vegetables, on pita bread, or chips.
from Farmgirl Fare at fttp://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com
Mediterranean Orzo Salad
16 ounces orzo or other small pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups Kalamata olives, chopped
1 pint Juliet Tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 chopped red tomato
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup lighlty packed fresh parsley leaves and/or fresh basil
freshly ground black pepper
salt
1. Bring about 3 quarts of water to boil in the large pot. Add salt and the orzo and cook until al dente. Drain well in the mesh strainer, then pour hot orzo into the mixing bowl.
2. While the orzo cooks, stir together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in the small bowl. Pour the mixture over the hot orzo and toss. Allow it to sit for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the olives, tomatoes, onion, and parsley/basil, and stir well. Season with fresh ground pepper and a pinch of salt. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature.
From Andrea’s Recipes at http://www.andreasrecipes.com/
Week 12 Newsletter
As we are driving back from Canada I am making an effort to write on my laptop. We (Jody, Johannes, David, Linda, and I) all went to pick up Annemarie from her summer camp. Annemarie has spent the last four weeks on a canoe trip in the wilderness of Temagami, Ontario. This summer camp has become a family tradition; Johannes spent three summers there, also. Northwaters/Langskib is an opportunity for young people to discover their limits by going out in a canoe with not much more than some (freeze dried) food, a few sets of clothing, and a tent for four weeks. Think of “Survivor” without the competition. Young people learn things about themselves they never thought could be possible; carrying their supplies and canoe for miles over rough terrain to connect to another lake or river, and simply having to get along with another person while overcoming many physical obstacles. Annemarie had a partner that not only had real difficulty in getting the canoe and wanagan (a wooden box with supplies that is carried with a head band) over the cliffs and other obstacles but he hardly spoke English.
As I was listening to the many stories the campers told us about what they had learned on their trips I was amazed at the support they gave each other and the complete absence of personal competition. Many kids realized that self reliance is only possible when you work together in community. I was thinking how their experiences resonated with our efforts at the farm. Last week I wrote to you about immigration reform. I was pleading for us to treat immigrants as people and not as objects we fear. I am sure that many of you did not see the connection between this issue and the farm. But our views on agriculture do not stop at the farm gate and for some reason these kids put it all together for me again. Please allow me to back up here for a moment as I will try to explain how this all relates to our farm methods and the CSA.
When we bought the farm it was all planted in corn or potatoes. We found that almost every inch of the land had been tilled and planted to maximize its production. There were ruts from tractor tires two to three feet deep in sections of fields that are too wet to grow crops in. The farm was treated like an object and the crops were seen as commodities. Today the farm is treated as something that is unique; there is only one Roxbury Farm and we will never be able to replicate it anywhere else in the world. By setting goals to not only protect the soil against erosion but to also increase its fertility, we have to constantly review its use. By allowing the farm to become a living individuality we care for it like a living organism. Any living organism is defined by a semi permeable boundary like a cell wall, or a skin; in our case it is the woods where our property ends and becomes the neighbors’. Any living organism is qualified by its integrity; when it is invaded, it existence is challenged. Not only do we have to find integrity in our relationship with our members we have to find this in our relationship to the land as well. This can often be a struggle because our need to produce vegetables can overpower our ability to listen to the land. There is a real tension between the needs of the people and the needs of the land and we farmers often feel like we stand in between like an acrobat on a tight rope.
Some people may look at our farm and think that we are not using it to its fullest potential because so much of it is in permanent grass (we could expand the CSA and make a lot more money). In our eyes the highest possible use of these sections is hay or pasture and not vegetables or other row crops. We find ourselves taking more and more land out of production which limits the growth of the CSA. But grass and woods offer a place for animals. Pigs by nature want to dig and they were destroying the pasture. Some people put a ring in their nose to keep them from digging but we didn’t feel right about that. We want the pigs to be able to be pigs. Looking at the farm we had two sections of woods that had become full of thorns and rose bushes. The woods seemed to be a good match for the pigs. They don’t like being in the full sun because they easily sunburn and the shade from the trees would keep them cool and out of the sun. We have to be careful to not overstock the two wooded pastures or they will quickly become degraded. The two groups of pigs we have in the woods now are very content. One section of the woods becomes a small pond when it rains. The large sows can completely submerge themselves in the water with just the tips of their ears and snouts sticking out. They look like hippos on hot summer afternoons. But since we only have limited number of acres in woods, we can only raise a limited number of hogs. We will never have enough pork to meet all the members’ needs.
As this letter is too short to go into more details I just described a few little aspects that describe how we make decisions. Jody and I sit down at the end of the season to talk about what worked well and what changes we need to make. The objective is to both serve you and to serve the land while respecting the farm as an individuality. This kind of individuation process is similar to our own Self development. I should note that it is actually quite the opposite of what we commonly refer to as self-realization as the former requires a willingness to develop empathy and listening (oh yes, I have a long way to go in my own development). In order to see things clearly we actually have to leave our comfort zone. Watching these children tell us how they had overcome some of the hardest obstacles in their lives by learning to fully trust each other reminded us how much better we can do as farmers listening to our land, animals, workers and customers. The children had clearly made a connection with something in themselves. The stillness of the Temagami wilderness and the harsh conditions allowed them to hear it and unveiled the uniqueness of each other, accepting it with all the inadequacies.
~Jean-Paul
As I was listening to the many stories the campers told us about what they had learned on their trips I was amazed at the support they gave each other and the complete absence of personal competition. Many kids realized that self reliance is only possible when you work together in community. I was thinking how their experiences resonated with our efforts at the farm. Last week I wrote to you about immigration reform. I was pleading for us to treat immigrants as people and not as objects we fear. I am sure that many of you did not see the connection between this issue and the farm. But our views on agriculture do not stop at the farm gate and for some reason these kids put it all together for me again. Please allow me to back up here for a moment as I will try to explain how this all relates to our farm methods and the CSA.
When we bought the farm it was all planted in corn or potatoes. We found that almost every inch of the land had been tilled and planted to maximize its production. There were ruts from tractor tires two to three feet deep in sections of fields that are too wet to grow crops in. The farm was treated like an object and the crops were seen as commodities. Today the farm is treated as something that is unique; there is only one Roxbury Farm and we will never be able to replicate it anywhere else in the world. By setting goals to not only protect the soil against erosion but to also increase its fertility, we have to constantly review its use. By allowing the farm to become a living individuality we care for it like a living organism. Any living organism is defined by a semi permeable boundary like a cell wall, or a skin; in our case it is the woods where our property ends and becomes the neighbors’. Any living organism is qualified by its integrity; when it is invaded, it existence is challenged. Not only do we have to find integrity in our relationship with our members we have to find this in our relationship to the land as well. This can often be a struggle because our need to produce vegetables can overpower our ability to listen to the land. There is a real tension between the needs of the people and the needs of the land and we farmers often feel like we stand in between like an acrobat on a tight rope.
Some people may look at our farm and think that we are not using it to its fullest potential because so much of it is in permanent grass (we could expand the CSA and make a lot more money). In our eyes the highest possible use of these sections is hay or pasture and not vegetables or other row crops. We find ourselves taking more and more land out of production which limits the growth of the CSA. But grass and woods offer a place for animals. Pigs by nature want to dig and they were destroying the pasture. Some people put a ring in their nose to keep them from digging but we didn’t feel right about that. We want the pigs to be able to be pigs. Looking at the farm we had two sections of woods that had become full of thorns and rose bushes. The woods seemed to be a good match for the pigs. They don’t like being in the full sun because they easily sunburn and the shade from the trees would keep them cool and out of the sun. We have to be careful to not overstock the two wooded pastures or they will quickly become degraded. The two groups of pigs we have in the woods now are very content. One section of the woods becomes a small pond when it rains. The large sows can completely submerge themselves in the water with just the tips of their ears and snouts sticking out. They look like hippos on hot summer afternoons. But since we only have limited number of acres in woods, we can only raise a limited number of hogs. We will never have enough pork to meet all the members’ needs.
As this letter is too short to go into more details I just described a few little aspects that describe how we make decisions. Jody and I sit down at the end of the season to talk about what worked well and what changes we need to make. The objective is to both serve you and to serve the land while respecting the farm as an individuality. This kind of individuation process is similar to our own Self development. I should note that it is actually quite the opposite of what we commonly refer to as self-realization as the former requires a willingness to develop empathy and listening (oh yes, I have a long way to go in my own development). In order to see things clearly we actually have to leave our comfort zone. Watching these children tell us how they had overcome some of the hardest obstacles in their lives by learning to fully trust each other reminded us how much better we can do as farmers listening to our land, animals, workers and customers. The children had clearly made a connection with something in themselves. The stillness of the Temagami wilderness and the harsh conditions allowed them to hear it and unveiled the uniqueness of each other, accepting it with all the inadequacies.
~Jean-Paul
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Week 11 Notes for Members
WORKDAY RE-SCHEDULED: The member potato harvest workday is now on Saturday, Aug. 23rd. The workday was rained out on Aug. 9th. We will meet at 10:00 am at the farm office on the South Farm. This is a great job for members of all ages. We usually break for a potluck lunch around 12:30 pm and then work again until people are tired. Come for the whole day, the morning, the potluck, and enjoy a walk around the farm, working with the farmers, and meeting your fellow members. Bring a potluck dish to share, place settings, water bottle, sunscreen, work gloves, and clothing that can get a bit dirty. Hope to see you in the potato field!
ORGANIC RESEARCH: The Leopold Center of Sustainable Agriculture located in at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa has created a new website that posts the summaries of research published in scientific journals about organic agriculture. It includes research on organic vegetables and produce, grains, milk, poultry, meat, comparisons of organic versus conventional produce, animal health and welfare, and niche marketing. You can visit the website at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/organic/index.html
ORGANIC RESEARCH: The Leopold Center of Sustainable Agriculture located in at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa has created a new website that posts the summaries of research published in scientific journals about organic agriculture. It includes research on organic vegetables and produce, grains, milk, poultry, meat, comparisons of organic versus conventional produce, animal health and welfare, and niche marketing. You can visit the website at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/organic/index.html
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